I really should show you the roof,” said Alexa von Tobel, perched on a white bouclé chair in the gleaming Manhattan offices of her venture firm, Inspired Capital. “Let’s pop up there.”

We whisked out of the ninth-floor conference room, past a large portrait by Alex Katz, the Brooklyn-born artist currently receiving a Guggenheim Museum retrospective, to ascend to the top of 817 Broadway. The 125-year-old Beaux Arts tower just below Union Square has turned into an unexpected locus for New York City’s tech investors and founders, not to mention their spouses, siblings, college friends and interior designers.

“They did a beautiful job,” said von Tobel, exiting from an elevator onto a finished roof deck with tables and benches encircled by the space’s distinguishing feature: a crown of brick arches. “The views are insane. At night, the city is glowing. And when it’s not freezing, you can work from up here.” You can throw parties up here, too, as Inspired has done with fellow building tenant Union Square Ventures.

While big tech has claimed an ever-larger slice of the Big Apple over the last several years—Netflix has a new studio in Brooklyn, Meta Platforms has spread to the stately Farley Building near Penn Station and Google has expanded to fresh confines at Pier 57—the city’s venture capitalists have carved up a smaller footprint centered around a single area, roughly a mile south and a mile west of Union Square. And as VCs have sought square footage here, 817 Broadway has become a blinking-red beacon.

New York, N.Y. (December 12, 2022) – National Real Estate Advisors, LLC (National) and Taconic Partners, along with Triton Construction and hundreds of women and men from the building trades, celebrate 312 West 43rd Street’s topping out, the ceremonial marking of completing vertical construction.

The 367,000-square-foot, mixed-use development project is located at the vibrant confluence of Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen. Designed by Handel Architects, the 33-story building will contain 330 rental apartments accessed via a distinct 43rd Street entrance, and approximately 42,000 square feet of prominently positioned retail spread across two floors on West 42nd and West 43rd Streets.

“Our experience in this market, paired with the expertise and vision of the Taconic team, should create one of the highest-quality living options in the burgeoning Midtown West,” stated Jeffrey Kanne, president and CEO of National. “We are proud of the hundreds of jobs this project is creating within the community and would like to thank our experienced and steadfast labor partners for their dedication.”

The property will be further enhanced with over 28,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor wellness-centric tenant amenities, including a rooftop pool and landscaped outdoor space accessible by residents across multiple floors. The building has also been uniquely engineered to provide filtered outside air to all residences and common spaces. Situated amidst an abundance of restaurants, entertainment and retail offerings, the site is adjacent to 12 subway lines with direct access to Grand Central Terminal, Hudson Yards, The Port Authority and Penn Station.

“312 West 43rd Street was thoughtfully designed to bring its residents an unparalleled combination of bespoke homes, contemporary amenities and convenient proximity to commercial office centers and mass transportation hubs,” said Colleen Wenke, president and chief operating officer of Taconic Partners. “We’re excited to celebrate this topping out milestone alongside our partners, and are now one step closer to bringing one of the city’s most celebrated neighborhoods its next iconic residential and retail destination.”

Taconic and National leased the ground rights for 99 years from the respected 1199SIEU Health Care Workers Union for the redevelopment of the site, which is expected to be completed in Fall 2024.